Integral design of a laser wakefield accelerator with external bunch injectioon

High harmonic generation and ion acceleration with high-intensity laser pulses

“…We have chosen to implement such QPM via the multi-mode beating (MMQPM) because this seems to be relatively straightforward in terms of technical implementation in our capillary discharges (e.g. available from experiments on laser wakefield acceleration in our group [47]).…”

“…The output is sent to a compressor designed for a maximum energy of about 50 mJ. The measured fluctuations in the pulse energy are 10% and are mainly caused by operating the multi-pass amplifier below saturation [47]. An advantage of this mode of operation is that the laser output pulses posses a transverse beam profile which is close to a Gaussian behind the spatial filter.…”

“…Such electron bunches would enable the generation of femtosecond X-ray pulses in small-sized undulators or, it could be used as an injector for existing free electron lasers [45]. In recent years, a demonstration experiment for a laser wakefield accelerator has been assembled and is currently being tested in our group [46,47] (the Laser Physics and Nonlinear Optics (LPNO) group at the University of Twente) 8 . The investigated scheme of laser wakefield acceleration is unique in that it may allow the first acceleration of an externally injected electron bunch, and the first acceleration after injection in front of the laser pulse.…”

Theoretical investigation of external injection schemes for laser wakefield acceleration

“…The details of these calculation can be found in the concept article and the PhD thesis of Irman [42,86]. Here we present only the properties of the bunch calculated at the entrance of the plasma channel and the further acceleration in the laser wakefield.…”

“…In this section, we will give a brief description of the experimental design being developed at the University of Twente. More detailed information can be found in the article concerning the design [42] and in the PhD thesis of Irman [86]. Exit port for accelerated electron bunches Figure 5.8: The laser wakefield accelerator at the University of Twente.…”